As the holiday season approaches, a fascinating study has revealed reindeer’s incredible multitasking abilities, implying that these creatures can chew and sleep at the same time.
Researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research in Troms, Norway, propose that reindeer manage their digestive needs while also getting the necessary rest. According to Professor Gabriela Wagner, one of the study’s co-authors, “We speculate that in the wild, rumination might take over an important part of the sleep coverage.”
The study, which was published in the journal Current Biology, involved recording brain activity from four adult female reindeer.
Researchers used EEG to monitor the animals’ brain activity over four days during the winter, summer, and autumn seasons using non-invasive electrodes attached to their scalps.
Surprisingly, the EEG data analysis revealed that the reindeer slept the same amount of time regardless of the season. Furthermore, the proportion of time spent in various sleep phases, such as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep or non-REM sleep, remained consistent across seasons.
Slow-wave activity has increased
The researchers disrupted the reindeer’s sleep for two hours, which increased the animal’s need for sleep. “This indicates that the reindeer brain has an “idea” of how much sleep the reindeer need to function well – just like ours,” said Wagner. “This is not so in all animals.”
The sleepiness of reindeer is relieved after chewing the cud
Surprisingly, the reindeer’s sleepiness vanished after they began chewing cud. Dr. Melanie Furrer, first author of the study from the University of Zurich, observed that the reindeer entered a state similar to non-REM sleep while chewing the cud.
“We think that the ability to sleep while digesting might be especially important during the short summer when the reindeer are very active all day to eat enough food [and] accumulate fat in anticipation for the food-sparse winter months,” said Wagner.